Israeli jailers would wrap Palestinian prisoners in shrouds and bury them alive.
As they began to suffocate, just before death took hold, a small amount of air was allowed in to keep them alive, only for the process to be repeated moments later.
This is one of many accounts of torture inflicted on Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities.
Following the recent Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange, hundreds of detainees have been released, and similar harrowing testimonies have emerged.
Mahmoud Ismail Abukhater, 41, was at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza when an Israeli military quadcopter hovered overhead, broadcasting a voice ordering “people of the neighbourhood to surrender,” on 20 October 2024.
“They fired bullets at houses and balconies and bombed homes nearby as they broadcast those messages to terrorise us. That’s when they detained us,” he recalled.
Abukhater said the torture began the moment they were detained and continued until the very last moment before their release.
“They treated us like animals, not humans,” he said.
Before being transferred to prison, the prisoners were taken to a place that resembled a cattle farm in Gaza, he explained.
There, they were forced to endure the freezing night, wearing only boxers and the thin white clothes they were given.
Hellbound and Down 